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Topic: California Pizza Kitchen (Read 88763 times)

Your pizza really does look great.............. I am surprised at everything that went into it,but I believe you. I am looking for special items especially ones that are unique and thathave high topping coverage. The 2stone pizza pro is being used in higher end specialty shops where shredded cheese is common and the norm. When there is good cheese coverage it works fine. otherwise the shredded cheese is just incinerated.

In lieu of using a dry jerk seasoning as suggested (but not specifically disclosed) in the abovereferenced myrecipes.com recipe, I decided to use a liquid jerk sauce as was recommended by one of our members (deaconvolker) at the PMQ Think Tank forum at http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6692&p=43690&hilit=#p43674. As it so happened, I was able to find the brand he mentioned, World Harbors, at my local supermarket. That product can be seen at http://www.worldharbors.com/Jerk.html. In my case, I just basted the chicken breasts with the WH jerk sauce as I was grilling them. Alternatively, I could also have marinated the chicken breasts for several minutes in the jerk sauce. That is what I might try the next time I make the pizza using that jerk sauce.

I followed the instructions on how to make the Caribbean Sauce, prepare the chicken, and to dress the pizza as described at the myrecipes.com website. Ideally, the Caribbean Sauce should be about medium thickness. The dough recipe itself and my execution of it is described at Reply 11 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10202.msg91686.html#msg91686. After I made, baked and ate the pizza, I concluded that any number of different types of dough can be used with the recipe, including NY and American style doughs. The basic pizza dough recipe as described in the original CPKI cookbook (the recipe can also be found by an Internet search) can obviously also be used.

In dressing the pizza, which was 12 in diameter, I first brushed the skin with a bit of olive oil and then used about 5 ¾ tablespoons of the Caribbean sauce, about 6 ¾ ounces of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella cheese (which I had grated/diced in my Cuisinart food processor), about 1 ½ cups of diced grilled chicken pieces (they were cut into ½-inch pieces), 1/3 cup of bacon pieces (about 4 slices, cooked until about 75% done), about 3 tablespoons each of diced roasted red and yellow peppers (it is important that they be as dry as possible so as to minimize water on the pizza), and about 1/3 cup of sliced white onion. This was followed by a couple tablespoons more of grated mozzarella cheese. As noted at Reply 11 referenced above, the pizza was dressed on a pre-baked crust. The final, dressed pizza was baked on a pizza stone that had been placed on the middle oven rack position of my electric oven and preheated for about an hour at about 525 degrees F. It took about seven minutes for the pizza to complete baking. Upon removal of the pizza from the oven, I sliced and sprinkled the green part of a single green onion on top of the pizza.

The photos below show the finished pizza. I found the pizza to be delicious, with a nice balance between sweet, spice, heat (spice heat), and saltiness (mainly because of the bacon). I believe that the Caribbean Sauce was the major contributor to the overall flavor profile of the pizza. The jerk sauce was also a contributor but in my opinion did not contribute the real heat that I am accustomed to as a Texan when using a habanero- based sauce or rub. Next time I make this pizza, I am quite likely to look for a hotter habanero-based jerk sauce or seasoning. Fortunately, I had some Caribbean Sauce left over, which I intend to use on reheated leftover slices of the pizza. I might also add more of the WH jerk sauce for further test purposes.

As I mentioned in Reply 11 referenced above, the crust had very nice color, both top and bottom, and was chewy at the rim and crispy from the rim to the center. From a thickness standpoint, the pizza had a thickness factor of 0.0970. The flavor of the crust was good but not exceptional despite the use of the preferment as I elaborated it. In this case, the star of the show was the toppings and the flavors they imparted to the pizza.

After I made the abovedescribed pizza, I discovered that the CPKI jerk pizza and recipe is described in a second cookbook by the same authors (Flax and Rosenfield, the founders of CPKI) as the original CPKI pizza cookbook. I am not certain, since I dont have the second cookbook, but I believe the jerk chicken recipe may be the one described at http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/eatingout/eating_c/jamican-jerk-chicken.htm.

I like the CPK Sicilian on a rare occasion since it's frozen. But the crust is amazingly good for a frozen pizza. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any recipe for it so far, except for the ingredients from their website.

I noticed that in at least 2 cali style pizzas you mentioned that you made(in this thread), you decided to use crust recipes other than the cpki clone recipes listed here in the thread.

Is there something you don't like about the (cpki crust)formula?

I must admit that I tried it(about a year ago) and I think I disliked the crust moreso than any other I have tried. I'm pretty sure I tried to precisely follow the instructions, but it(the crust) was just so bland and lifeless. There was just something "cardboardy" or "plasticky" about it. I've had other crust formulas not turn out so good, but not so bad that I didn't want to try again.

I'm wondering if I should give this another shot?

This was a chicken with barbecue sauce, pineapples, red bell peppers, onions, and a few black olives. Maybe I'll try another style crust with the same toppings and see how it goes, before I pass final judgement.(This will be my first try at posting photos, so we'll see how it goes).

I noticed that in at least 2 cali style pizzas you mentioned that you made(in this thread), you decided to use crust recipes other than the cpki clone recipes listed here in the thread.

dwighttsharpe,

I try many different dough recipes so I can't say it was because of the CPKI dough recipe that I did not use that recipe for some of the CPKI versions I made. The time might come around again where I might decide to try the basic CPKI dough recipe again. However, based on what I have read about CPKI it might be useful to keep in mind that the CPKI pizza dough balls used in their restaurants are formed into skins using a press of some kind (I believe they use hot presses) and the pizzas are baked in gas-fired ovens, which might make for a softer crust/rim than what I will get in my standard home electric oven on a pizza stone.

I definitely noticed the crust was sweet. . . quite sweet in my opinion. We had the honey wheat crust on the Eggplant Veggie pie, and it was excellent. The kids got the regular crust. Both crusts were quite sweet.

I also noticed that the oven appeared to have fake logs in it. . it seemed to be an open-flame gas burner. I thought that was kind of silly.

At some point I would like to try to do a whole wheat crust like the one at CPK.

Has anyone tried the whole wheat crust as posted at the beginning of this thread? Better yet, has anyone converted it to %s?